1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a double-layered air bag module cover having a tear seam that ruptures upon inflation of the air bag.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical air bag module includes an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device, such as an air bag, and an inflator for inflating the protection device from a deflated condition to an inflated condition to help protect a vehicle occupant. The protection device when in the deflated condition is typically overlaid and hidden from view by a cover. For a frontal module, the cover may be a portion of a vehicle steering wheel or instrument panel. For a side impact module, the cover may be a portion of a door or seat.
An air bag module cover may be a two-layer cover, with an underlying substrate to which there is adhered a decorative cover, such as a leather covering layer. In such a case, each layer of the cover includes a tear seam at which the layer can rupture to enable inflation of the protection device. It is desirable that the two tear seams be aligned with each other so that the cover as a whole ruptures in a predictable manner upon the application of a predetermined amount of force from the inflating air bag.